Supporters remind us that religious freedom is a basic American right. Opponents call the location disrespectful to the victims of 9/11. Meanwhile, what should be an issue for Manhattan’s urban planners is crossing the threshold of lunacy, with everyone from the president to Alaska’s former governor pumping oil on this firestorm.

Hoping for peaceful resolution, let me share some first-hand experience as a native New Yorker and a former city planning board member.

Just two short years after 9/11, my boyhood home in the Bronx was converted into a mosque.

I grew up there with my cousin, George Holzmann, one of the firefighters who survived the World Trade Center attack.

The house had been in our family for three generations. So when the time came for my elderly mother to move to Mobile, we were careful about finding the right buyer.

A neighborhood police officer named Mario made us a fair offer and immediately began spending his days off fixing the broken sidewalk and repairing the leaky roof.

Then one day in 2003, a sign written in Arabic and English appeared on the front door. It was an adhan, a Muslim call to prayer.

Turns out Mario had sold our ancestral home as a "fixer-upper" to the neighborhood’s Muslims.

At first, George and I were in total shock. With America fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we wondered out loud if our boyhood home would be harboring terrorists.

But we soon came to our senses and realized our old home was a peaceful place.

Our Irish Catholic neighbors kept close tabs on the new residents, who would fill our tiny front yard with cars some nights, go inside and quietly pray.

My wife and I went up to see for ourselves and only saw a Muslim lady, wearing a flowing red hijab, leaving the house to buy a newspaper at the corner grocery.

Our old neighbors told us that people would drive down the street at all hours, hurling rocks through the mosque’s windows. The mosque’s imam would replace the broken windows, which would soon be broken again.

I remembered that George and I used to wash those windows with a garden hose when we were boys.

The pitiful sight of my shattered childhood home’s windows reminded me of Jesus’ words: "Let the man among you who has no sin be the first to cast a stone."

I won’t be able to live with myself if I don’t speak honestly on this subject: If you actively oppose the mosque near Ground Zero, you are aligning yourself with the rock throwers.

America is at war with violent Islamic extremists, not the Muslim faith. The first step in winning a war is identifying the enemy.

There are some violent nut cases in most religions, including Christianity. Recent examples include the IRA in Ireland and, closer to home, abortion-clinic bombers in Pensacola and Ku Klux Klan terrorists in Mobile.

These killers don’t represent the Christian faith, just as al-Qaida terrorists don’t represent the Muslim faith.

As a Catholic, I see the planned construction of a mosque near Ground Zero as a call to peaceful dialogue for all of us: Christians, Jews, Muslims, those of other faiths and nonbelievers. We are all God’s creation.

The simple truth is the Muslim faith did not destroy the World Trade Center. Violent extremists with a twisted understanding of their faith destroyed it and themselves.

As Americans, we are not forced to choose between honoring the innocent dead of 9/11 or supporting our God-given right to religious freedom. We can and should do both.

My cousin George and his fellow firefighters were the first to show us how as they searched for the last victims at Ground Zero, raised the American flag and then gathered to pray.

Terrorists who were so full of hate that they were willing to die were soundly defeated by firefighters who were willing to die because they were so full of love.

I’m proud of my cousin George, who was an American hero in my book, years before al-Qaida came calling. I’m proud of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Jew, for publicly supporting the Muslims’ right to build their mosque near Ground Zero.

I’m most proud of my faith in Christ, which strengthens me to believe that with more prayer and time, the rock throwers will simply put down their rocks and live with us in peace.